


The Morning After

by Eric_Charles



Category: The Social Network (2010)
Genre: Boys you really need to learn about listening, M/M, Post-Canon, Yes Mark especially you
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:09:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24161101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eric_Charles/pseuds/Eric_Charles
Summary: The morning after their settlement, Mark and Eduardo wakes up, finding themselves trapped in each other's body.Or: Mark thought that he was protesting his discontentment to the Wardo in his dream. Unfortunately, it's not a dream.
Relationships: Eduardo Saverin & Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin/Mark Zuckerberg
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt develops from my thought of Mark blogging about FB and Wardo after the settlement (of course Mark will not publish it online after the event with Erica and Facemash). I wanted Wardo to be able to see Mark's blog so that they could have an argument, a fight or something :) So this is the solution! Consciousness exchange!
> 
> It's my first fanfic and English is not my mother tone, so... I hope it reads fine.

Settle, and done. At last, the cessation of a 3-years farce. Maybe he should have paid that speeding ticket earlier to save all these troubles, it’s just that he couldn’t bring himself to do so. Still, he did agree to sign those papers, solely for the good of Facebook and Facebook alone. Proposal date of IPO is coming close and Facebook needs to look good. All things considered, 6 million for shutting the irritating twins up and for precious time not being wasted in that fucking tedious settlement room, 600 million for… well, disentanglement with Wardo. Not ideal, but he could live with that.

_Facebook cannot tolerate the risk called Wardo._

It’s 1 o’clock midnight, Mark has just finished another beer at a gulp, then continues his typing on the “log” file. Mark is still in his habit of blogging, but he’s clever enough to **never let anything appear on the Internet** by now, “Because every word you type is a potential PR disaster,” quoting from Chris.

_Facebook is a diamond yet to be polished, a path to the ultimate life success. If you don’t want to follow the rules, become the one making them. No more waiting for being punched, nominate yourself the president of your own final club. Facebook is the foundation of everything. No failure can be tolerated. I am not going back to that life, never._

_Wardo never understood. He never understood what Facebook is and what it could become. He wasn’t there when the company needed him, when I needed him. God, I even pleaded him to stay! And as a response he just freezes the account like it was a game or toy or what. Petulant, childish. He does not give a damn about the imminent destructions his action could have caused! What kind of CFO is that? What kind of friend is that? Stabbing your back and jeopardizing the whole company for “I need to get your attention”? Or is it that he just couldn’t wait to show off his power? See, Eduardo Saverin can smash your months of work into dust with a snap of his fingers if he feels angry and upset, because he is the very first and the only investor of the company. Ha, applauses to the powerful, almighty, omnipotent Eduardo Saverin. Excellent demonstration of how-to-notice-your-friend-you-are-upset. Outstanding illustration of I-can-ruin-you-at-any-time-if-you-don’t-listen-to-me._

_An ambush, he named it. Right as hell it was! Though I’d prefer to call it revenge. What else should you be expecting then? Celebration and flowers and champagne? I’ll admit that my act doesn’t really comply common moral consciousness, so what? Like I cared. A death contract signed by the genius from Harvard Economics, how ironic. The same goes for his stubbornness in ads. Why the hell is he so addicted to ads anyway? How long does it need for him to realize that the Internet is new and that you cannot fit your conventional business mode on it? Or is it just he could never ever get that? I’d bet the latter._

Under the harsh light flashing from the ceiling, Mark’s face seems to be a bit too pale for people at his age. His stomach suddenly starts twitching on its own, probably has something to do with the things he took in as dinner or the dozens of empty beer bottles piled on his desk, who cares anyway? Mark garbs several pills from his drawer as usual, swallows them, drinks some water, and gets back to his computer. He resumes his writing, trying to fight off the drowsiness that is gradually taking over.

_By the way, those ludicrously exaggerated emotional testimonials, is this what they teach nowadays in economics lectures? Hilarious. They should considfszgvhsldhfa_

Ardent sunlight floods through the window, wakes him up with great tenderness. Mark shields his eyes against the morning sun with his hands and yawns comfortably, feeling invigorating and relaxing. There is still a little sleepiness wandering in his head, but he should probably blame it on the bed being so spongy and comfortable. He hasn’t been able to have adequate sleep for a really long time that he couldn’t even remember when did it last happened. His stomach ache is also gone, the effectiveness of the pills he took has shown a tremendous increase compared to previous experiences… 

Wait a minute, when did he change to these comfortable pajamas?

Alarm bell rings violently in his head, as Mark pulls himself up, trying to recognize his surroundings. The room is unfamiliar, ostentatious, some kind of guest room, he would say. This shift of location could only have occurred while he was asleep. Kidnapping? No presence of another individual. On second thought, far too considerate to be kidnapping. Weird. Nor is his computer or phone anywhere to be seen. Should have expected that. 

Mark notices a mobile phone placed on the nightstand, together with a half-filled cup of water. A communication device must have been there for some purposes, he figures. Taping on that phone, he is immediately caught by surprise when the requirement for a password pumps up. Definitely for some purpose, but not yet. Annoyedly, Mark puts down the phone, when an unusual feeling suddenly strikes his mind. Something feels off with his reflection on the screen. Following his gut instinct, Mark rushes to the bathroom, and found himself wordlessly stunning in front of the mirror – and the reflection that couldn’t have belonged to anyone but Wardo. 

What the hell? Mark cursed mentally. It’s totally unscientific. There has yet to be any evidence indicating transfer of consciousness between organisms is plausible. Mark could list a dozen reasons illustrating why this whole thing just doesn’t add up– yet it happened.

Then the most scientific explanation would be a dream, lucid dream. He has been able to make logical judgements, has past memories is aware that he’s in a dream, is able to control himself, whether he is able to get hold of other things is yet to be trialed, though it would be absolutely normal if he can’t since this has been his first, thanks to the psycho lectures before he quitted U – but dreaming himself in someone else’ body? His dream has indeed been unique, especially when considering that the “someone” is equivalent to “Wardo”. Anyways, Lucid dreaming is simply a hybrid state of consciousness, so this is just indicating that the settlement has been affecting him a bit more than he realized, or, maybe just the leftover from his vigorous emotion he had when writing the blog, before he accidentally falls asleep.

Before he’s got the chance to be finished with his thoughts, the phone ring suddenly goes off. 

Marke grabs the phone, and found his own telephone number displaying on the screen. Obviously, Wardo-in-dream did not set any remarks for his number, a fair setting, though he did suppose he should at least have a remark in Wardo’s phone.

Mark picks up the call. If he becomes Wardo in the dream, then he could reasonably assume that the one calling from Mark’s telephone would be Wardo-in-Mark. 

“Wardo?” First thing first, Mark needs to confirm his hypothesis.  


“Mark! How dare you!” Exasperating condemnation bursting from the other side of the line, unquestionably his voice, and definitely not his tone. 

Oops. Hypothesis is valid.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a slight modification at the end of the first chapter, no effects on the plot though.

“If I’ve ever, Jesus, Mark! How could you even think of me like that!” Huh, the familiar, accusing tone of Wardo, like he’s the most innocent person in the world. On a second thought, he probably is, considering the fact that the opposite side stands Mark-losing his jury in the first 10 minutes-Zuckerberg. 

“Oh, really? Well, your action says exactly the opposite! What did——”

Mark stopped abruptly, staring at his—Wardo’s—reflection on the mobile screen. For god’s sake, why is he even doing this? Arguing with Wardo-in-dream is simply meaningless. He’s basically arguing with his subconscious. But the next moment, he simply decided that it doesn’t really matter. He’s got piles and piles of words banked, burying deep down in his heart. Maybe he could just spill them out, to Wardo-in-dream. No one will ever know about this, it’s even safer than putting them in his log. 

“——do it all together!” Determinedly, Mark gets back to the phone, just in time for Wardo-in-dream’s done speaking. 

“You simply see it as a business when it’s obviously far much more than that——”

“I was just trying to keep it running!” Eduardo’s exasperated defense jumps in, but Mark simply ignored that and continues. 

“——While I was working and thinking on Facebook day and night devoting every bit of my time and effort you were joining those stupid parties and having those idiotic activities——”

“So it is about me getting into Phoenix!”

“You possessed 1/3 of the company but you never took it seriously. Dustin’s only got 5% and he took Intro to CS for Facebook! Then you were trying to make it profitable by adding advertisements——”

“I was handling the business end! And it’s not like you don’t need advertisement to make it running!”

“——We started by targeting college students and everything in college is about cool. Advertisement simply degrades user experience and makes it not cool. If a few users start leaving, the others will follow suit. It’s like snowballing, the time it forms an avalanche is the time Facebook is completely done. I explained that to you so many times and you just never took that in. You also refused to come to California because even working on an intern——”

“I quitted on the first day!”

“——is worth more than working for Facebook. When you were finally here you got mad because we were setting up meetings without a CFO who’s three thousand miles away——”

“You could have at least brief me about it when I called you!”

“——and because Sean is doing your jobs when you choose not to be here with us. Do you have any idea on how many times have I been asked the question ‘Who is Eduardo Saverin?’ or ‘Where is your CFO?’?! ——”

“I…”

“——How many times have I asked you to come here during the phone calls? I pleaded you to stay together with us that night but you simply stormed out and the next morning I found out our account has been frozen——”

“I was upset and angry because I had two long flights and hours of waiting at JFK with no one picking up my calls or reply my message when someone said he was going to pick me up, and finally had to get a taxi and travelled in heavy rains. Then I found that Sean has taken over my place as CFO, freeloading in the house and flirting with underage girls in the living room!”

“——I was freaked out, Wardo. If the server was not paid on a monthly-basis, if that day has been the payment day, our server would have down and Facebook would have been an outright failure! You know what happens next? The Winklevii, the Fuerza Latina, the ABHW, they can’t wait to laugh in our face for that. YOU WANT THAT? ——”

“Mark, I...”

“——You hold the lifeblood of Facebook and did not hesitate for a second to destroy it, it was pure luck that Facebook survived! Congratulations for treating everyone into believing I am the villain here, but we both know that it was you who fired the first shot. I needed to protect Facebook and I wanted a revenge. That’s how it happened. I hate to lose my best friend but I could never bring myself to regret it, Wardo.”

Finished with his last sentence, Mark ends the call, and sits down at the edge of the bed. Exhaustedly, he lies back, staring blankly at the white ceiling. He licks his lips, suddenly realizing the dryness in his throat. Unsurprisingly, that’s what usually happens when you shout ceaselessly to someone for two-whole-minute, though it’s still kind of remarkable how sensation could work so real in a dream. 

There had been some responses or retorts coming from the other end, which simply goes in one ear and out the other. Because, why should you pay attention to something generated by your subconsciousness? Still, he couldn’t stop himself from wondering, how the real-Wardo would have reacted if he ever hears this. It’s not like it has the slightest chance of occurring. Yesterday has clearly been their last conversation. The signatures mark not only a settlement with Facebook but also an agreement to bury their past. Besides, what’s done cannot be undone. The rift is too wide for healing. 

He is exhausted. He is thirsty. He would really like to have some water. He needs it. Yet he simply doesn’t want to move, not an inch. The water could wait, he decides. Dehydration in a dream wouldn’t cause real harm to your body. Plus, not like he would have cared about that in real world. As for the fucking rowdy phone keeping on vibrating beside him… Well, he should be able to dominate his dream content, right? So, Mark shuts his eyes, concentrates at the word “stop”, and focuses his mind on the obstreperous phone. 

This proves to be a useless move. No matter how hard he tried – for god’s sake he even shouted it out, “STOP!” “I said, STOP!”, Christ, anyone who sees him this moment would probably think he’s gone nuts – the phone just keeps on vibrating. Without vision, the sound feels even more irritating than it was. Frustrated, Mark stretches his hand to pick up the phone, and found a dozen of unresponded calls from the same person who called previously. Damn, why couldn’t he just GIVE UP! Despite that he knows Wardo is not someone who gives up easily, for the record. 

Mark turns off the phone. 

Eventually, the world is back to tranquility.

***********************************************************************************

What Eduardo shouted when Mark was staring at the phone without listening:

“Stop that, hear me out! I was childish, and I’m sorry! I apologized! I unfroze the account right after! I thought it was over! You said it was over! And I was stupid enough to actually believe that you mean it! Mark, I was CFO, I was supposed to handle the financial end of the company. You bought servers without telling me, you recruited intern before you told me, I only got to know about the whole California thing after everything is settled. You didn’t tell me about the letter, by the way, see what it has gotten you. And you never told me that you were setting up fucking meetings with the VCs! Now here you are accusing me for wanting your attention? I just wanted to do it all together!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of fanfics write about how Eduardo forgives Mark. I do not deny that Mark is more "wrong" in this whole case, bystander perspective. But I just want to say Mark also hurts, more than Eduardo or others think he is.
> 
> I don't know where this story is developing, I hope it could be a fix-it, I wish it would be a reconciliation, I'm trying hard.
> 
> BTW what Mark shouted, I tried myself speaking fast and it's slightly more than 2 minutes, so I guess with Jesse's speed he could definitely finish it with 2 minutes.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Added a few paragraphs to chapter 2, cuz it's not really fitting here.

Just before Mark begins to wonder why he is still in this dream – you know, dreams generally last around half an hour, so supposedly he should be out soon – the doorbell rings. He jerks up from the bed, wondering what he should be doing right now. He didn’t pick up the phone calls, so he’s certainly not going to answer the door. The thing is, he isn’t ready for this. A regathering, a confrontation, whichever you name it. He no longer knows how to define their relationship. Best friend, buddy, partner (business of course, as well as for plenty of other things they’ve done together), roommate (not officially but technically, since Wardo used to drop by and stay overnight), opposite sides of a deposition, everything comes with a past tense. If he has to call it something, anything, maybe _strangers_ is a more suitable description. Not that accurate, but better than the others. He hates the idea of adding “ex-” prefix to the phrases mentioned previously. He prefers not to make the whole thing feeling completely unidirectional. 

They are just strangers. Strangers who know each other as they know themselves. Strangers who know each other’s food preferences, childhood memories, girlfriend preferences, exciting or embarrassing experiences. Strangers who can understand each other by reading every minor expression in body language. Strangers who shared an enjoyable mutual past yet choose to run into two separate paths that would never intersect anymore. They have become the most familiar strangers. 

He turns to the direction of the door. 

It’s only a dream. He reminds himself of that. So, whatever happens here won’t be known by anyone. He could either open the door, and… then what? Have one last chat with Wardo? That actually sounds tempting, since he’s probably not going to get a second chance if he misses this one. Or, he could sit here, ignore it along with the calls, and wait for this crazy dream to end. 

He decides to go with the first, keep waiting here is merely too bored. 

He walks steadily towards the door, preparing himself for a decent and orderly greeting, and pulls the door open – and it turns out to be simply the room service, delivering a breakfast “he” ordered on a routine basis. 

Mark signs the bill absentmindedly and leaves the food on the table. He is not really in the mood eating right now. 

Just as he is lying back to the bed, the doorbell rings again. Signing and murmuring, he gets up, opens the door, and is instantly stunned by his own image standing outside the door. 

He feels a strong urge to shut the door, prepare himself ready, and redo this, despite the fact that he couldn’t. On the contrary, he just stands there, dazed and disabled, trying to do something, say something, yet failed – until “Mark” invites himself in and closes the door. 

He feels like being paralyzed – did he really see that not-so-Markish grin flashing through his own face, or is it him being delusional? Either way, one thing is for sure, his CPU is burning down right now and he isn’t in a clear state of mind. He stares blankly as “Mark”, no, Wardo-in-Mark, dream-Wardo, whatever, just Wardo would do, greets him, “Uh, Mark?”, with a Wardish tone. 

“Wardo.”

Almost like an automatically programmed reply, the word voluntarily finds its way out, into the extremely awkward atmosphere. As the CPU reinitiating itself, Mark blinks his eyes, relocating the focus onto Eduardo, swallows. His muscles are not receiving any proper commands from his brain. He shouldn’t have opened the door. He couldn’t even find an excuse to save himself from this. This dream better ends quickly, cause he’s not capable of handling it any longer. 

“Dream? What dream?”

Not until he heard that question did he realize he’d actually voiced that out. 

“Nothing.” He quickly responds. 

“Mark…” 

There they came, the familiar, sympathetic eyes, the gently you-know-you-can-tell-me tone, of all things. Being on a different face doesn’t lessen its effectiveness. He couldn’t endure this, not after all that happened. 

“Stop that, Wardo!” He has absolutely no idea where this sudden outburst comes from. “You know you are a dream character, alright? You aren’t supposed to be here solely for the purpose of embarrassing me. Christ. I should have just chosen to wait for it to end.” 

“Wait, Mark, you think this is a dream? I know this is weird that our consciousness is being switched but——” Wardo’s voice sounds kind of cautious. 

“You know that consciousness exchange is not plausible, don’t you?” 

“You can never read texts in a dream, remember? You told me that after your PSY S-1, when we were having our chicken sandwich, and I’ve just read your whole blog thing. By the way, I’m still hurt that you pictured me this way.”

“Then you probably shouldn’t have read it! That is why it’s stored locally!”

“Well because it’s shining in front of my eyes the moment I wake up! Even before I realized something went wrong, thanks to you drinking your head off the night before! I don’t even want to try counting the number of bottles on your table.”

“So, you are saying, this is not a dream.” Mark tries hard to make sure his voice sounds calm and normal. “The whole freaky thing is actually real.” He feels like a fish freely wandering around, not until the net begins to shrink did the fish realize the severity of the whole situation, yet it’s already too late for any struggling. 

“Yes.”

“You are Wardo.”

“I thought you know that.”

“Not only did you read my blog, you’re also the one on the phone.” Confirming the acuteness of this whole situation is utterly a torture, he can barely stand on his feet now. 

“Yes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Imagine Jesse’s voices shouting to you about how hard you broke his heart, with an almost crying out tone, could anybody resist the guilty feeling despite what he actually said? Yep, neither can Eduardo, I’d say :)
> 
> Or especially can’t Eduardo. 
> 
> I’m being serious here, I went through a long way to decide Eduardo’s reaction when he first sees Mark, after all these things. In fact, I think both of them contributed to the breaking up, the first turning point being Eduardo freezing the account, while the whole thing became completely irreversible when Mark plots the trap. Hence, after hearing from Mark’s side of view (and how can we forget his high tolerance towards Mark’s unfriendly behaviors), I decided that he wouldn’t drop in with an angry face (the outmost reason being he’s got a few minutes to calm down when commuting from Mark’s home to hotel). He’s really trying to be the nice one, and let’s see how long could this peace last! Oops, not even till the end of this chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ll explain Eduardo’s mode of action in the end chapter note, since this is a Mark POV so it seems weird to add Eduardo's thoughts here.

Mark drops himself on the sofa like he is sleepwalking. His mind is operating in a complete mess. This whole thing must have been a joke, a hoax, a mischief, made by the god himself. This cannot possibly be true. How could this have happened? Mark never regrets, no matter how bitter the pill he’ll gladly swallow it. Six months of academic probation and being grudged by most if not all female organizations at Harvard? It's their problem not being able to withhold the photos in a safe place. Breaking up with Wardo? It was an act under extreme emotion, nonetheless a necessary sacrifice for Facebook. He doesn’t feel regret for executing his wills. Why should he? 

Yet here he is, couldn’t be more desperate to find a way, go back in time – twenty minutes would be more than enough – and retrieve his own words. If he had known it is not a dream, if he has been more careful about fact-checking before making his decisions – halt it there, he still hasn’t done any fact-check, how could he be sure that the whole this-is-not-a-dream thing is real? The sole counter-evidence is something presented by Wardo, who could have been part of the dream regardless of how real it seems. Yes, he should do it himself, for verification purposes. 

Mark gets up in an instant, dropping the cup of half-filled water from his hands in the process, rushes towards the desk in a hurry. He quickly locates the hotel guidance menu in the drawer, and tries to dream from the first page. 

He doesn’t need to actually read the content, the moment his eyes focus on the lines, he knows that he’s doomed. This entire mess? It's real. He stands there, like his feet being stumped on the ground. He couldn’t bring himself to get back to the sofa, where Wardo is. He attempts to calculate the optimal move here. Act casually and pretend nothing happened at all. Figure out why is Wardo here. Then... then, he’ll have to improvise base on the responses he acquires. There is really not much to plan. 

Resolved, he puts the menu book back into the drawer, closes it, turns around, and steps back to Wardo, no, sofa, yes, he is heading back in order to face Wardo. 

“So, emm, why are you here?” Mark hopes his voice did not betray his vigorous emotion. 

Eduardo gives him an unbelieving look, a mixture of “I can't believe you are asking me this!” and “Of all things you choose to start with this?”. Then he hears a sign, a moment of silence, seems like Wardo is doing his effort on phrasing a suitable response. They’ve had enough fights in the last few days (silent fights, as a matter of fact, he wonders if anyone other than them two has realized their daggers stabbing each other across the table), and they don’t need one more right now. 

“I… We need to solve this issue fast.” Eduardo jumps right towards the main point after a series of expressions alternating on his face, and finally settled at the one named _determined_. “You need to be back at Facebook on Monday and I’m supposed to be on the flight back to D.C tomorrow.” The flare of pain in Wardo’s eyes when he made the mention of _Facebook_ , was that his illusion? 

Mark replies with a “Okay” look and a nod. This is actually better than he’s anticipated: no questioning, no arguing, no pushing. Apparently, Wardo has also decided to let go of what happened previously, for whatever reason it might be. Things are finally beginning to get better here. 

“Right, I need to inform Chris about this, he’ll figure out what to do next.” Mark picks up the phone and turns it on. “Password?” 

“0319”

“You do know that using birthday as phone password is not a safe step,” He stuck, then did they accidentally caught each other’s eyesight, and were struck with a sudden realization that this conversation has been way too natural for them now. However, Mark couldn’t puzzle out what would be the appropriate reaction, and judging from the stiffness of Eduardo’s body, neither could he. So, he just typed the password as he was told, while trying to finish his sentence in a normal tone and being all too aware of his failure to do so. “don’t you?”

“I suppose so.”

A fair response. Polite and restrained. Perfectly fitting for the current atmosphere by saving him from the embarrassment of his monotone, though not that Wardish. Not that he is in the place to ask for more, given their current status. 

The screen unlocks.

Mark quickly dials Chris’ number, then they both wait for it in awkward silence, with only the weak dialing sound beeping from the phone. 

Chris better pick that call quick, or he’ll have to turn on speaker mode to disrupt this silent ambiance. He wonders whether they are still keeping contact, Chris and Eduardo. It seems like they do, since Chris’ got that that remark on Eduardo’s contact list. He didn’t know about this. Nor is there a reason he should. Why does he even care about these minor details? 

Then Chris’ voice takes the place of that monotone beeping sound. 

“Hey, man. Sorry I didn’t show up yesterday, it feels——”

He sounds kind of surprise and welcoming, and intimate. 

“Chris,” Mark cuts in, not wanting to hear more of these stuffs, “This is Mark. Listen, Wardo and I somehow had a switch of our body this morning, and now we are both in his hotel room.” He decides not to mention the other things that happened. 

“Woah woah, Eduardo, did you just watched ? Anyway, I’ve got to give you some credits for imitating Mark’s tone of speaking.” 

Mark groans inwardly. He looks up and finds Eduardo mocking at him, making it even worse. He should have known better than to assume he could finish this easily. 

“No, I’m not joking, Chris. I need you here as fast as you can. We need to discuss on how to cope with this. Wardo was supposed to have his flight tomorrow and I have an internal meeting on Monday morning.”

“So?”

“You’re the PR, you’ll figure out something.”

“Now I believe that you’re Mark. Just please keep in mind, I’m your PR, not a master key for everything. I will be coming, but tha’s because we are friends, your PR doesn’t have the duty to handle your personal mess, especially at weekends. Speaking of which, I’m on my way, give me ten minutes.” 

“Good.” Mark ignores everything but the last sentence, and hangs up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eduardo’s line, since this is Mark POV so what we see is only what Mark tells, here’s some supplement to explain Eduardo’s actions:   
> The night: trying to leave everything behind and have a brand-new start  
> Wake up: WTF is on that screen?!?! =_=# (MARK!!!!!!!!!)  
> During phone call: overwhelmed by Mark’s sudden honesty and outburst  
> Phone calls unpicked and shut down: Worried and a bit guilty and realizes they need to solve the body exchange issue before Monday comes (it’s Saturday now)  
> On the way to hotel: calm down a bit and decide to act as a grown-up (in other words, try to not pick up a fight, be tolerate and gentleman, place the body exchange issue first)  
> First glance: amused by stunning Mark, don’t really know how to face Mark and how to react  
> Mark says it’s a dream: suddenly understand the outburst on that phone, amused once more
> 
> Where does the half-filled water come from?  
> Eduardo sees an offline Mark on sofa. Eduardo decides he should hand him a cup of water to relieve his stress. Mark drinks the water (without conscious of the action himself) when he’s deep in his thoughts. 
> 
> Mark blames everything on Eduardo, but he knows that he’s the one making that final decision. 
> 
> Eduardo tries to stay indifferent with Mark, but sometimes it’s not that easy to control your natural reflexes :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The difference between them:  
> Mark: Let bygones be bygones, broken things can no longer be fixed.  
> Eduardo: Let bygones be bygones, it’s time to look forward and be a grown-up. (What? Mark? Facebook? It’s just a business. And business is business. It’s simply a business, and I’ve gained a great deal from the settlement. No, I’m over it now, we don’t talk about friendship in making business decisions. I AM NO LONGER BOTHERED BY THIS!)
> 
> Oh, poor Eduardo, do you really believe in what you just said :)
> 
> *There are some explanations that help explain the situation, since some things are not appropriate to appear in Mark's view. 
> 
> I kind of figured out what direction is story is leading to... so, seems like it's only half way (by half I mean literally half) now.
> 
> Just realized that the time in story is running too slow so I'm accelerating a bit here

“Chris will be here in ten minutes.” Mark turns back to Eduardo – who is trying so hard to conceal the grin on his face – informing him, and hands him the phone. “You know, you can laugh if you want to. I wouldn’t mind that.” Yes, he would and they both know that. Fuck, he’s started to going back all that once again. “Is there anyone you need to call?”

“I’ve actually heard that, but thanks.” Eduardo has ignored his teasing. Mark finds it hard to decide if he should be feeling happy about that. “Guess I should call Gretchen to delay my schedule. Jesus, my father will be inquiring me about the reasoning, and how am I supposed to explain all these to him.”

Mark watched as Eduardo gives a moan of frustration, he wants to say something, or clap Eduardo’s back, to give some comfort to his friend, but he just couldn’t be sure if his intervention will make it better or worse. _You are an adult. You bear not responsibility to answer to your father._ He would have said exactly that before. Now? He is the reason why Eduardo has to turn to his father for legal support. He assumes that he’d better refrain from doing anything, to prevent more mistakes. Contrary to everyone’s belief, although they are no longer friends, he does care about Wardo’s well-being. In the end, Mark just stands there, hands in his pockets, because he’s got nowhere else to place them. 

The awkward silence is back again. Mark finds himself a spot in the sofa, as if it somehow helps to shake off his uneasiness, and watches Eduardo. Eduardo quickly picks up his emotion, dials a number, presumably Gretchen’s. However, he soon hanged up before it was picked up, and turns to composing a message. Right, their voice would have exposed their ongoing problem, and obviously, Eduardo wants to resolve it secretly before anyone else notices, to avoid any further connection between them. It still hurts to think of what have become of them, but then again, this is his decision. Eduardo is the one forcing his hands, but nonetheless the decision is his. 

It’s been a while now, and Eduardo seems to be still struggling with his message. Seriously, does it normally take so long for people to construct a message with a simple piece of information, _I am going back later?_ Shouldn’t that be like, stating the fact with one sentence, and press send, then it is done? Besides, Eduardo doesn’t seem to be into typing. He is simply repeating the action of taping on his phone, switching between apps and channels. Judging from the frequency of taping, Mark genuinely doubt how much information did Eduardo really took in. Mark unconsciously bites his lips, and suddenly realized the fact that he has been staring at Eduardo’s every movement since… since he’s passed him the phone. He’d better find something else to do, maybe have a drink. Mark looks away and began to observe his surroundings. There is a half-filled bottle of water and an empty mug on table. Weird. He has no idea how they got there, perhaps that’s Wardo’s doing. Then he deduced that he could make use of the minibar, there’d always be a few choices there. 

Just before Mark could turn his idea into action, the doorbell rang. Must be Chris. Eduardo seems to be just finished with his message at the exact same moment. What a coincidence. Yet, instead of granting a comment, which he would have done in the past, Mark walks silently towards the door to greet Chris. 

The meeting was, once again, a disaster. 

Eduardo got to open the door, because he has physically the closest distance to it. And from the greeting part, it is when everything started to run off track. Chris tried his best to pretend that, maintaining a close relationship with two guys, who happen to be best-friend-turned-strangers, is an absolutely normal thing. Needless to say, he failed. It was not Mark’s fault, he tried to cooperate, the task itself was impossible to accomplish. Eduardo has also put in his effort, however, no one was able to find comfort in his board smile and forbearing tone – despite everything, it is Mark’s face! 

After 5 minutes of quick discussion – to say discussion is an overstatement, it was Chris who did most of the talking, since the other two people were not contributing; Mark was still wrapped up in his thoughts, and Eduardo…seemed like he doesn’t care – they concurred with the idea of _temporarily stay_ at Dustin’s house (Mark dislikes the word _settle_ ) for one week, while trying to work out a solution to switch back. 

Mark doesn’t like the idea of having one more individual knowing about this mess, especially when it comes to Dustin, who has a similar situation as Chris has. Look at the bizarre atmosphere when Chris entered, this will be going on once again in Dustin’s home. And this time, it will be critical hit. However, he doesn’t have a better idea. He called Chris, because the PR needs to be aware of what Facebook is potentially facing – CEO may not be able to make proper appearance for an uncertain period of time – and more importantly, because he is lacking a practical resolution. So, he wasn’t in place of making any objections, when Chris mentioned the risk of their current issue spotted by paparazzi along with its effect on IPO. He has backed down in the settlement for Facebook, he could do this as well, for Facebook. 

Chris further convinced him by a series of other reasoning. Primarily, they need to stay close for the sake of emergency, so that when someone (mainly, Mark, since Eduardo isn’t currently running a billion-dollars company) needs to show his face, they can make proper responses in time. In addition, as to why Dustin’s house is the best choice: he is the CTO so it provided ideal condition for remote working at his house (devices, communication, etc., Mark has to say he does agree on this); he is currently single, so there would not be unexpected visitors; his house is large enough to provide everyone an individual room; besides, Mark is familiar with that place since he’s lived there before. 

This is what life looks like, most things are not ideal, but he’ll have to live with it. 

The rest was simple, call Dustin and check out the hotel. Chris phoned Dustin, luckily it was picked up in time, and explained the situation. Eduardo packed his stuff, fortunately it was a simple process as it was supposed to be a short stay, and then they were ready to go. 

Everything went smoothly.

The ride was fine, Chris was driving, Mark in co-pilot seat, and Eduardo in the back. The silence went on, but it is less awkward when you don’t need to face each other. 

They arrived at Dustin’s house one hour later, given that they’ve also went to Mark’s house and picked up his stuff, mostly electronics – phone, laptop, hard drive, etc. 

Dustin let them in, and showed them their rooms. Eduardo’s room is on the first floor, Mark’s the second, next door to Dustin’s. Good. Sufficient distance between them. Probably Chris’s idea. 

Then Mark was back to his room, immersed with his work on Facebook again. 

Time for working, he’s still got a new function to code.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Q&A session! 
> 
> Why did it take so long for Eduardo to write his message?  
> He’s done with it the first minute. The rest? Well, what could they do if both are unoccupied? It’s not like they are ready for a chat or something. So, what’s a better option than pretending to be occupied before Chris’ arrival? Yes, Mark’s got that too.
> 
> How did the bottle and mug get there?  
> Eduardo.
> 
> Drinking something when not knowing what to do, it’s actually Jesse’s characteristic during his interviews. “What a coincidence”, well I bet most who know the interview with Jesse & Andrew will get it…though Mark is just being sarcastic here.
> 
> What’s the first disaster?  
> His meeting with Eduardo.
> 
> No, Eduardo does care, he just agreed cuz he doesn’t have better idea, but this is from Mark’s perspective so…
> 
> Originally it should be “settle at Dustin’s house for one week”, but Mark dislikes the word settle so it became temporarily stay.
> 
> Mark lived with Dustin for short periods before, when Facebook was expanding rapidly and there was too much work, so CEO and CTO basically lived and worked together, like they did back in Palo Alto.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one is kind of difficult to write... Plus I'm starting a new intern so it took really long.  
> I am not sure about Eduardo's reaction at the end of the chapter, so after struggling for two days, I decided to post this first. It would be great to have some comments about what you think...

Coding feels great. Everything back to his control, as they ought to. He gives commands, and the program follows. He knows exactly where each line of code is leading to, and why they are here. Back to his kingdom. The codes are dancing on his fingertips, spontaneously yet organized. This is what he loves about coding. Things are simple here. As long as you do things right, you get a satisfactory result. Plus, you can always revise the unideal ones. 

Besides, immersing yourself into coding helps to get your mind off everything unimportant, for example, the breakfast (probably along with lunch) that he consciously ignored. 

Mark is resuming his work on a function that enables users to get access to their friends’ friends. Facebook is about making connection, and what could be better than access to larger social circles? Imagine people could meet new friends solely from Facebook, or get to regain their long-lost connections through Facebook! The new function is going to be a new landmark! After this function goes online, users will be developing their network based on Facebook, and how could you ever throw away a cornerstone of your social circle?

He has only been able to finish the frame work on Friday, due to some… unexpected emotional outbreak. Now is the right time to finish the rest. 

The first functional code has been tested and successfully incorporated. Mark grins unintentionally to his precious work. It’s great to be back coding. 

The second part was a little trickier, but hey, he’s Mark! It did take some efforts, to fix the bugs, and run several trials. Still, everything found their way out, and the test was again, a success, as it ought to be. 

The third part, a piece of cake.

The forth part, child’s stuff.

The fifth and final part, tricky again. The coding progressed smoothly. However, it turned out that the program somehow contradicts previous commands. “error”, a word deeply distaste by all engineers. He screens through the first few lines, no obvious mistakes. The 28th line, lacking a “:”. Is that where the problem arises? One more trial, no, still got something wrong. 

Time for hide-and-seek with bugs in program, and he is definitely the winner, doesn’t mean he ever liked this part. The question is, how long? 

Before he could figure that out, Dustin is standing by his side. 

“Come on, Mark,” Mark startles at the sudden sound appearing right next to him, the line of code turns into garbled characters, before he gets the chance to complain, Dustin continues, “it’s already 7!” 

Rude intruder. 

“Not a reason—”

“Take the blame yourself. I’ve called your names a dozen times and you’re not responding.” Dustin sounds kind of desperate. That is him, exaggerative and dramatic as always. 

“No. I will finish this code before I do anything else.” 

“Gosh, it’s so weird to be talking to Wardo’s face knowing I’m actually talking to Mark. By the way, have you ever watched ? It depicted a similar situation. Body exchange, troubles coming, just like you two.”

“Never heard of. And I’ve had enough so I’m not going to torture myself by watching another one.” Why must he mention things that he’s trying so hard to ignore? “Go watch that once more if you’re so hopelessly addicted to it, and STAY AWAY.” He sincerely hopes Dustin could understand the last two words, with his deliberate emphasis. 

“And I believe I deserve better than this, for handling all the mess, you know, hosting you two.” Great, he couldn’t. 

Mark decides to put on his “Wired in, do not disturb” headphone and resume his work. 

He found the source of error, but before he gets to start debugging, Dustin is here again and he took off his headphone. 

Mark turns around, filled with rage, ready to strike the one who dare to interrupt him, **once again**. However, when his FFA* has finally identified the figure behind him, all the words just choked in his throat. 

That’s not Dustin. It’s himself – Wardo. 

Seriously? Again? Even after all these? Weird, with everything else changed so enormously, he is still oddly confident in as to why Eduardo is here. Pure instinct, which doesn’t make any sense. He couldn’t understand, did his action not clarify it clear enough that he’s trying to avoid their encounter (and the embarrassing moment that follows), not promote it? Yet, before his overloaded CPU could come up with a proper response, Eduardo spoke first. 

“Mark,” Mark just can’t get it, why could Wardo sound so calm? Why is he here in the first place? They’ve already broken up. Is he pitying him? For that phone call? Exactly why he decided to bury it. He hates it when others are pretending “I know how you feel”. They never do. No one will. And what’s more? Nobody seems to have the self-recognition function installed, not even the most primitive version. “Your need to eat something. Efficiency is lower when you’re lacking energy supply, and I believe you know that.” 

Of course he knows. Except the fact that, the one who’s talking is the only reason why he couldn’t get himself off coding. Plus —

“And why would you care? Making up compensation for what you heard? Magnanimous Saverin comes to show his compassion? Does this satisfy the hypocritical-ego of yours? Save them for yourself! I’m sick of it!” 

In fact, he knows that somehow, Eduardo’s care towards him is genuine – the part he detests most. 

“Mark, can you just, stop pretending to be a jerk, for one minute?” Eduardo sounds frustrated, yet clear of anger, nor blame. Truly bizarre. Mark could even find sorrow in that voice. WHY?! He has been long over that. 

Mark has once hoped that, maybe one day, Eduardo would come to him, show some signs of good will, and they would move on, be who they were again. After all, he isn’t that pertinacious in obtaining an apologize from Eduardo. He has hurt him as much, he does know that. So, overall speaking, they are even. However, when Eduardo finally reaches him, it was a litigation hold letter, on a lawyer’s stationery.

Three year is a long time. With each more meeting happening in the small room, his hope gradually fades away. By the end of the first year, he has completely lost it. As a matter of fact, they just sit silently on opposite sides during most of the time – they don’t really need to talk to each other, that’s why the lawyers get a high pay – but when they do, it was usually the time when another piece of sweet memory turns bitter.

Mark could not stand it. So, he coped with his own method. He convinced himself that everything was Eduardo’s fault — it wasn’t actually that hard, since most were indeed Eduardo’s. He turned every piece of emotion into anger, anger towards Eduardo. Why was he so stubborn? Why couldn’t he step back a bit? Why couldn’t he not be so sentimental? You only need to focus on these few questions, and then it’s pretty easy to blame him for everything. See? Simple. 

What Eduardo is doing right now, it’s wrong. You shouldn’t give people fake hope, because they may take it seriously, and it will hurt so much when the bubble pops. Eduardo is being nice, too nice, and it only serves to remind Mark of what they would be like, if none of these shitty things ever occurred. He couldn’t figure out an appropriate response. Nothing really fits. 

“If you want a reason, fine. It’s my body that you’re messing up with, and I wish for it to be return to me in good shape.” Eduardo adds abruptly. It’s hard to say if he truly likes this answer, but it sounds far more reasonable than, say, Eduardo still cares for Mark just as before. 

“…Okay.” Mark replies. He didn’t bother to look up into Eduardo’s eyes. That would not be necessary. He marked the bug with a “#”, saved the file, renamed it with the date, and shut down the MacBook. He stared at the screen until it turned completely black. Eduardo should be gone by now. He’s given him enough time to retreat without making it absurd. 

*FFA stands for fusiform face area, the part of brain mainly functioning of facial recognition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Q: And what is not a success? What did not go as it ought to be?  
> A: Eduardo!
> 
> Eduardo: No, why would I care about Mark’s wellbeing? Who am I to care about him? What? Dinner? I’m just making sure my body isn’t being abused during this period!!! No, I still don’t care about him and I have no reason to. Well…maybe just a bit, you know, old day habits. 
> 
> The first thought jumping into his head was to press the two life-saving keys as fast as he could – command and S.  
> (command + S in Macbook = save current file)  
> Originally I wanted to put it in the place where Mark turns back finding it’s Eduardo. However, it just doesn’t really fit in (and probably not really a first reaction), so I’ll put it here, for fun :)
> 
> I thought about Eduardo saying things like: I cared because you are messing up with MY body. I won’t bother you anymore after this thing is finished. You can do whatever you want, stay up, eat junk food, I don’t care.  
> Then again, the wonderful thing about E&M is, I couldn’t really imagine Eduardo saying that, even if they’ve broken up.
> 
> The thing I'm struggling with is, will Eduardo stay or will he leave in order to avoid further contact?


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is Eduardo POV, I thought it would only be one chapter but turns out I will be needing two, so.. this is the first one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End note has explanations to some of the plot so I would really recommend reading it.
> 
> This chapter took me really long, cuz it has been so difficult to decided whether get along with Mark POV (and which decision to make) or write a Eduardo POV. And because I was working on my application of transfer to my dream major :((( I hope I would be able to end this whole thing before August in next year

While packing his staff into different drawers respectively, Eduardo couldn’t help but keeps wondering: why must his life be so miserable? 

Solve the problem, leave for a new start. His plan has been simple.

However, the supposed destination is slipping further away. He came to talk a solution out, ended up here. He should have kept the more distant way of communicating. Less effective than face-to-face, true, but far less disturbing.

Tracing back, his original plan was shattered into dust the moment he knocked on Mark’s door. Hilarious that he didn’t realize it until now.

Looking back, that was clearly not a clever move. 

Now, a dozen email is waiting for his reply (half of which are from his family and lawyers, demanding an explanation for his sudden change of plan), Dustin and Mark being literally his roommate. Fuck, he doesn’t even know what face to put up if they accidentally meet each other in the house. Mark may actually be the easiest one here. Dustin, being the host, should not be disregarded. That would be utterly impolite. 

These few days are going to exhaust him. He shouldn’t have agreed to Chris’s proposition. Let Facebook be damned. He doesn’t care. Plus, if there is anything really happened, surely Chris will think of another way to fix this. Indeed, that would be causing trouble for his friend, but people have the right to give priority to themselves, right? He is going to pack his stuff, and walk the hell way out of here. He could rent a house nearby, temporarily, with absolutely zero disturbance, until they have sorted something out. 

But... Eduardo pulls himself away from that tempting idea, carrying that out would be adding another proof to his father’s point. Eduardo being impetuous and reckless. Eduardo’s emotion always clouds his judgement. 

_\----Deposition room----_

_“November 30, 2004. Mr. Saverin threatened my client by smashing his laptop, hence intimidating my client and causing property damage.”_

_Property damage, not that he was going to deny, him has been very impulsive that night. Individuals who are going through extreme anger tend to do that. As for intimidation, Mark? Really? Being intimidated? The whole idea seems so amusing that he couldn’t even laugh at it. Mark, what has become of us?_

_“Objection. My client…” Gretchen, his family lawyer, speaking up for him, defending him. He should be listening. While it is true that the debate was the work for lawyers, he should also be aware and highly alert of everything they went through. Except that he couldn’t. He looked out the striped window, obliviously staring at the blue sky, leaving his back to the deposition table. He has been constantly repeating this improper act recently. Should his father hear about it, he would be shouting and lecturing him again. But right now, he just wanted to have some space of his own. He needed it._

_The next two hours went along quietly, accompanied by scribbling sound made by Mark — since his brain automatically filtered out the ongoing debate between Gretchen and Sy. Mark must have been sketching his nonsense shapes and lines. He always does that, whenever he feels bored while being isolated from his beloved laptop. Now, it was yet another silent provocation of “See how much you guys have bored me”. Eduardo could interpret that message with 100% accuracy, probably also why Mark was doing it._

Later that night, he received another one whole hour phone lecture from his father — thanks to Gretchen for updating his father what was going on. Surprisingly it wasn’t about his manners during the deposition, but about what he did that night, November 30th. Immature, petulant. You are not a child anymore, stop acting as one. His father threw these phrases at him through the phone (some of the which magically coincides with the criticism from Mark’s diary, how ironic). Hell, sometimes he just wishes for an escape from all these bullshit. He has even got a plan of the things he’s going to do after everything is settled. Nevertheless, God has got his own plan, which happens to be incompatible with Eduardo’s original one. 

He decides to follow, and be extremely rational with his acts from now on. If this is God’s will, so will it be. If he should not be running from this mess (and yes, he is self-aware of the fact that he has been avoiding the inevitable intentionally), then he will face it. Dwelling in the past would do him no good. He is a grown-up. Little embarrassments would not be his obstacle. 

Now, he will plan carefully what he needs to do. 

During the next half an hour, Eduardo efficiently handled his work, dealt with half of the emails (that are not from his family, he was not avoiding this issue further, but he does need to figure out a suitable story to tell), and ordered a food delivery for lunch – what they used to do in dorm when there are reasons for not going out for meal, plus, it would be unwise to presume Dustin has suddenly become a great cook in only three years’ time. 

The delivery here is actually quite proficient. Eduardo gets a call only a few minutes after his order. He tidied up his things, and goes towards the front door. To his surprise, Dustin is already at the doorway, carrying two large plastic bag – probably food, seems like they’ve made a similar decision for lunch. 

“I’ve got yours, Wardo. Also from that French restaurant? Great taste!” Dustin hailed him with great enthusiasm, so he returned with good will equivalently – or at least they are both pretending to, who knows? They haven’t had contact for years, not since the million members party. Or more precisely, Dustin has tried to reach out to him – apologizing for something that’s clearly not his fault – but he felt uneasy to form a proper reply. Then, time goes by and they have both decided to let go in sync. 

Dustin invited him to join the lunch, and he complied. They talked about their memories in Harvard, the parties they went to, the bars where they went for drinks, the class they’ve first met each other, and all the funs they had. They also talked about Facebook (Dustin was a bit reluctant to bring up this topic at first, but the both of them do care for Facebook, so why not?) the obstacles they went through, the future they are heading to, the functions they’ve just installed. He had actually enjoyed the talk. It was much easier than what he has anticipated, now he feels like he has regained one of his old friend. 

Two hours passed without notice. When Eduardo finally returned to his room, he could’t help but wondered, it wasn’t that difficult dealing with Dustin, then what about Mark? Yes, the problem is far more complex when it comes to Mark and him, but maybe, just maybe, they could somehow retrieve their friendship? 

He is still angry at Mark. This one is for sure. For dictating everything on Facebook without discussions (sometimes it almost felt like he was working _for_ Mark, not _with_ Mark) and for the heavy blow of betrayal. Mark used to be so straight forward. Mark voices out when he has a disagreement, even a slightest one. Mark even disdains euphemism. Mark said let bygones be bygones and Eduardo just believed him. He has thought about it over and over, but couldn’t figure out a proper reason. Mark doesn’t care about money. He meant it when he said it. He was very sure of that, and he still is. Then again, he didn’t realize how much a destruction has he caused to the trust between them when he froze the account. He has saw it as a mean to grab Mark’s attention, brutal but effective. He has promised himself that he will unfreeze the account _right after_ Mark gives any response – the bank was just a five-minutes-walk away from his dorm, he could also do that with a few simple clicks on his computer. He has always saw the account freezing thing as a brief interlude. Never had he considered the possibility that this may have been the last straw – until today morning. 

He wonders if Mark has felt the same level of betrayal as he did, the moment Mark found the account frozen. At the very least, this could sufficiently explain Mark’s attitude and behaviors afterwards. Not that he is going to forgive Mark, now that he understands. But he does feel less anger when thinking about it. 

Communication. Okay, this is becoming ridiculous. The biggest problem lies between Mark and him is communication! Maybe he shouldn’t be surprised, since it’s Mark. Yet, he should have taken more caution. Hell, communication, building network, interpersonal skill, team work, these are the things he has started learning since he was a child! How hadn’t he noticed that? If he looks back, there has been communication problem since the launch of Facebook: the financial management, the letter from Winklevoss, the internship, the VCs and advertisements, and more. Mark has always made his own judgements and acted accordingly. Eduardo has always known these things only afterwards. He has complained to Mark a few times, and decided to let go. It never occurred to him that this could be their Sword of Damocles. 

He had no idea how much Mark has wanted him and needed him in CA, just as Mark has no idea how much he has devoted into Facebook when he was in NY. 

He should have known. He should have done something about it before it’s too late. But he didn’t know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not really suggesting Dustin and Eduardo are just back to friends now, just after one single talk. It’s only temporary. They are living in the same house and trying to be nice to each other. (They both feel kind of guilty towards each other, Dustin for the kicking Eduardo out with such a brutal way, Eduardo for not replying Dustin when it’s not really D’s fault) Everything goes the good way so they almost feel like everything’s back. But it’s only temporary. When adrenaline drops and they’ve both settled down, the past is still between them like a thorn. 
> 
> Dustin stunned for a moment when he sees Eduardo coming from behind. Then he decided that greeting with Eduardo with his old way – dramatic and enthusiastic – would probably make this scene less embarrassing for them both.
> 
> The above paragraph is what I would add, should there be a description from Dustin’s perspective. 
> 
> Okay, the thoughts in the character doesn’t represent author’s opinion. People like Mark, they tend to think the fault is others because THEY ARE ALWAYS RIGHT. People like Eduardo, they tend to think from others’ perspective, be more empathetic, so they may the blame themselves. I am NOT blaming Eduardo by saying that their miscommunication is entirely his fault though my writing seems to say so.


End file.
